5th Annual Studer's Invitational Beer Olympics

We recently held our fifth annual Studer's Invitational Beer Olympics and it was a huge success.  You can read more of my thoughts on how our Beer Olympics event is a lot more than just a day of drinking in this post.  

This year we had so many participants signed up that we held our biggest event yet - ten teams of four people and we drank our way through five half kegs.  Like in previous years, we start with registration & waiver signing and then a quick game of sloshball (kickball with beer).  

Beer Olympic Planning Tip:  We ask participants to pay a $30 fee which includes a tshirt, cost of beer, and a donation to a charity for that year.  Spectators (non-players/refs) are asked to pay a $20 fee.  After the event we then reimburse for the beer and tshirts and any proceeds left over get donated! 

We got our ten teams together (using all of our favorite team names from the past four years) - including our reigning champion team: The Buccaneers. 

Each year, we learn a little bit more about what works best for the flow of the day and how to keep the games moving along as smoothly as possible.  This year, we decided to install 'quick challenges' following most events as opportunities for teams to earn a couple points to try to catch up if they didn't do well during a main event.

The only problem with this initially ambitious idea, was that our roster of participants included a significant amount of 'Rookies' and the thing about Rookie players is that they believe their 'beer muscles' are pretty big at the beginning of the day.  Our Veteran players stand by and laugh to themselves while they watch the Rookies drinking in between events.  As my husband said to me, "Do you see these Rookies?  They just have no idea how much drinking we have to do today yet.  They're finishing full glasses of beer between games!"  Needless to say, we emptied one whole keg before we even finished our first event.  

Beer Olympic Planning tip:  Generally games will consist of players drinking a beer per game.  Rookies will drink more at the beginning of the day and then slow down.  The more quick challenges you have (chug off, keg stands, etc) also adds to the amount of beer.  Generally for 8 teams of 4 players - three to four half kegs suffice.  It is always a good idea though to have a sober driver or two available to make a keg run during intermission if needed.

Our Olympics has always start the same way:

Main Event: Beer Pong tournament

Our quick challenges were optional events that as many players on a team could try to get a few extra points.  So if all four players on the team successfully completed or won a quick challenge - they'd receive 8+ points (2 pts per player)

Quick Challenge:  7 second Upside-Down, Backwards Keg Stand (2pts)

Main Event:  Dingbat Relay (similar to 'dizzy bat')

Beer Olympics Planning Tip:  It is helpful to have several big pitchers available to keep participants cups filled and to fill cups for events throughout the day.  Pitchers are also the main drinking vessel for one of the main events.  We have 10 pitchers on hand at our Beer Olympics.

[Skipped] Quick Challenge:  Quarters (possible +3)

Beer Olympics Planning Tip:  We had to skip a few events and quick challenges due to time and beer consumption.  Hosting a successful Beer Olympics depends greatly on everyone's ability to be flexible.  With so many teams and participants, our events and challenges were taking a lot more time than we had anticipated.  We needed to drop some of our events in the interest of daylight and also to maintain our beer inventory.

Main Event:  Slippy Cup (flip cup with a slip&slide)

Beer Olympic Planning Tip:  See the guy above holding the hose?  That is one of our spectators/Refs that attend the day.  It is very important to have non-participating people attend the Beer Olympics.  We are lucky to have several - which help keep pitchers and cups full, watch for first teams finished, spray hoses during slippy cup, pump and hold tap systems for keg stands, run stopwatches, and swap out and load full kegs.  It is impossible to be the host and do everything that needs to be done during the day.  The refs & spectators are a huge reason for why our event works.

Quick Challenge:  Chug-offs (+2 points to the winner)

Main Event:  Canoe Races

Main Event:  Anchorman

Beer Olympics Planning Tip:  If you do NOT want people to throw up in your yard...do NOT include neither Canoe Races nor Anchorman in your scheduled events.  We have had players throw up after both events every year we have played them.

Scheduled Intermission

[Skipped] Main Event:  Flip Cup Tournament
[Skipped] Quick Challenge:  Beer Duels

Main Event:  Bong Races  (also the inspiration for our tshirt design this year!  Thank you, American Eagle Screenprinting for the awesome design!!)

[Skipped] Quick Challenge:  Monkey Chug
[Skipped] Main Event:  Survivor Flip Cup
 - this was going to be a new game that I read about from The Canfield Olympics.  We made a few changes to the rules so that it would still be a team game, but used the same general concept - thanks Canfield for sharing!  Read about it here - it sounds both hilarious and amazing.  Wish we could have done it this year, but by this point in the day - we were almost out of daylight and most of our players could barely stand up straight..

Quick Challenge:  Chug-offs (again!  it's a player favorite!)
Main Event:  Booze Cruise Obstacle Course
(no pictures as it was about 9:30p and dark.  Included tire run, trampoline army crawl, rolling down a hill, running up the slip&slide, leap frog, and finish with a beer chugged.)

After a full day of events and copious amounts of beer intake - it should come as no surprise that a dance party broke out, in large part due to Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines on repeat 36 times in a row.

Our unscheduled dance party was followed up with a spirited awards ceremony where we hand out awards to the players based off of observations from the refs all day.  We give away awards for things like "Zophagus" (fastest chugger), "Shark" (doesn't look like a beer drinker but is awesome), "Hit the Deck" (first one to bow out of the competition), and ''Puke 'N Rally" (no need to explain that one).

After our awards ceremony, we then make team place announcements all the way up to our new 2013 Studer's Invitational Beer Olympic Champions:  Team Joker

And since our beloved 'Das Boot' has broken three times in the past years - we have now instated 'The Studer Torpedo' to be given to the champion team for first drinks before passing it around to all the participants while Queen's We Are the Champions plays loudly in the background.

And then we all continue eating and drinking and sitting by the fire long into the night.

Beer Olympics Planning Tip:  Ask players and spectators to bring a dish to share.  We set our garage up with extension cords and coolers and as our friends arrive it gets filled up with crockpots, containers, and roasters filled with awesome food.  Everyone gets more than enough to eat and the cost of food and non-alcoholic drinks is distributed across the whole group - rather than included in the cost of the day which helps contribute to a greater donation.

Beer Olympics Planning Tip:  Expect and/or demand family and friends to either sleep over (tents and air mattresses happily accepted) or be picked up by a sober driver.  There is little to no participants capable of driving home after the day.  Keeping everyone alive and safe should be main priority.  Always.

It was another year of fun and games this year.  Best of all - through our participation fee we were able to raise $506 dollars for Miss Tay  - a little girl from our community that has hydrocephalus.  You can help support her too by checking out her Go Fund Me Page - she is preparing to receive her final cord blood infusion in the next few weeks!

Thank you to all of our amazing friends and family that participate, help set up & clean up, play with positive attitudes and make this event possible.  We are so lucky.

Beer Olympic Planning Tip:  The biggest reason that we have been able to hold our Beer Olympics for five years in a row is in large part due to the people that attend.  That is why we have kept it an invitational event.  It also is because our invitees understand that although we spend the day playing drinking games, it is ultimately for a greater cause (the donation recipient).  The point of the day is not to get sloppy, puking drunk as fast as possible (although that does happen) - it is to spend the day with good friends, making memories, and raising money for a worthy cause.  

Why we have Beer Olympics

We had our fifth annual Studer's Invitational Beer Olympics event this past weekend.  We had a total of 42 participants this year (more than ever!), and finished off five half-kegs of beer (also, more than ever).  Our day was enhanced by a borrowed sound system, complete with a microphone (which I loved) and beautiful weather (albeit a tad warmer than comfortable).

It was a great, great day.  Tons of games, fun, and laughter capped off with an awards ceremony that always makes me giggle to see the honest pride in the eyes of the winners of the various honors - including 'Rookie of the Year', 'Shark,' and 'Zophagus.'

And I could even try to be cute and pull a Jeff Foxworthy and say things like..

'If you ever felt pride at the sight of your teammate who just threw up, return and finish their ice cube tray in canoe races..you might be a Studer's Invitational participant.'

'If you ever uttered the question, How's it flowing?, in reference to the keg tap system before you attempted an upside down keg stand...you might be a Studer's Invitational participant.'

'If you ever woke up with suntan lines on your face in the shape of an octopus...you might be a Studer's Invitational participant.'

And the details of the day deserve its own proper post (especially for Pinterest's sake, obviously), but as a very brief highlight of the day; I'm here to tell you it was definitely a good year for Beer Olympics.

And I imagine it's very easy for young people and optimistic party planners to re-pin my posts about Beer Olympics because they want to try to spend the day 'getting wasted' and playing drinking games.  They might pump their fists and think its an excuse to drink an excessive amount of beer.  Optimistic party planners might even call it a cool use of time, money, or planning.

And just as easily, naysayers may dismiss the day, roll their eyes and shake their heads at our event.  They might think its trashy or just an excuse to drink an excessive amount of beer.  Naysayers might even call it an inappropriate use of time, money, or planning.

But both the optimistic party planners and the naysayers would be wrong.  Because, just as everything in life, your perception depends on what angle you take the picture.

And neither see the participants, many of whom only come together once a year- hugging, laughing, and cheering each other on.

And they don't wake up to their facebook newsfeed filled with new friendship notifications of people who only met the day before.

They don't get to smell and taste the donated food brought by participants that line both walls of our garage in roasters, crockpots, and tupperware containers.  Or see our kitchen counters filled with donated breakfast foods and coffee for the morning after.

They didn't watch as participants and spectators helped each other carry tables across the yard, put obstacle course tires into place, replace empty toilet paper rolls, tap new kegs, clean-up spilled food, re-fill cups and pitchers, and fix running toilets.

They didn't hear the announcement halfway through the day to raise more money for extra kegs so no money would be taken away from our donation fund and then watch while participants dug in their pockets and ran to their cars to give more money.

They didn't hear the whole lot of fifty plus people chanting, "Miss Tay! Miss Tay!" while holding up their blue support bracelets - sending thoughts and love her way.

They don't see our guest beds used, the seven people sleeping in our living room, the three in the dining room, and four tents in our yard the next morning.  (Which we take as a compliment that our home is both welcoming and comfortable).

They don't watch how those that slept over spend their morning organizing supplies, stacking chairs, taking down tents, washing pitchers and roasters, and wiping down tables before driving home - some of which had two hour plus drives.

They didn't see a group of eleven of us- the last of those to leave - giggling and recalling the day before over bagels and coffee on our back patio; a mixture of friends and family - really all connected only by this one day.

To both the optimistic party planners and naysayers: we say - yes, we hold a day long drinking event at our house.  And yes, we emptied five kegs this year.  And yes, when we wake up in the morning and look at our house, yard, and garage - it takes a short moment to wonder if its been irreversibly trashed.

But Beer Olympics is so much more than a day of drinking;  maybe its more than what is possible to understand from the outside.  Because from the inside; from our angle - it is one of the most generous, inspiring, and uplifting days of our entire year.

If we're being honest - its hard to know who the day most benefits.  Is it our donation receipt, or the participants who make new friends and memories, or maybe most of all Brandon and I?  Because we get an enormous reminder of the flat out decent and good-hearted people that surround us.

If you seek to take the picture from the pretty side, your life suddenly becomes a whole lot more beautiful.  And we will tell you - our life is really quite beautiful indeed.

To all of you that are a part of this event, we are so thankful- because without you, we couldn't do it. We don't know how we got so lucky to have this many amazing and kind people in our life - but we are infinitely grateful and proud to know you and call you a friend.

Studer's Invitational Beer Olympics Video - Anchored Films

Our 5th annual Studer's Invitational Beer Olympics will take place in a mere 10 days and we are busy getting ready for the big event.  Tshirts have been ordered, to do lists are being checked off, and Rules & Regulations being edited.  It will be our fifth year holding the Beer Olympics to raise money for charity.  Fifth Year!!  For these past four years, we've been able to talk our friends and family into spending a hot summer day participating in hilarious games and drinking an extraordinary amount of beer all with the purpose of raising money for someone that could use a little support.  It makes me so proud to surrounded by everyone who helps make these big, amazing, and hilarious dreams come true.

This year,we have some exciting plans in the works.  A new game addition, new 'quick-points challenges', and some other surprises.  But maybe the most exciting addition to this year's Beer Olympics is our new pump up video recapping the last four years of events.  We reached out to Anchored Films  and they used their professional skill and comical insight to put together this awesome compilation of the photos and videos that we've captured at the Beer Olympics into one seamless film.   To say that we're obsessed with it would be an enormous understatement.

Disclaimer:  If you're at work watching this - turn down the volume! - also, you're at work watching this?




What is most amazingly fantastic about our Anchored Film (Like them here on facebook!) is that they perfectly blended the fact that the day is a bunch of fun, games and hilarity, but also that it is clearly a day of competing together for a greater cause.  That we spend the day making new friends, laughing, and competing with respectful sportsmanship.  Sure, we're a bunch of grown-ups drinking copious amounts of alcohol, but at the end of the day it's within the confines of safety and gracious merriment.

In past years, we've made personal donations* to both Make-A-Wish foundation and Miss Tay (a little girl from our community with hydrocephalus).  One of my favorite parts of Beer Olympics each year is during the awards ceremony when we announce again that we are grateful to spend the day playing and laughing all in honor of making a donation to someone in need.  You should hear the cheers and applause from our participants; it is truly a great day with an even greater meaning.  Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, to all of you who show up for some 'boozing for a cause'.  And a huge thanks to Anchored Films for making this video that perfectly reflects exactly what we hope our Beer Olympics stands for:  fun, friendship, and kindness.

[To share this video - you will need to use the direct link as it is set up as private on youtube.]

*personal donations are made to the organizations in our names on behalf of the participants, spectators, and event.  Make-A-Wish and Miss Tay in no way endorse our event, nor do we promote our event by using their name/organization.  

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If you're interested in hosting  your own Beer Olympics (and we hope its for a cause!!) - here are the links to our 'official' game rules.  They are organized in the order that we play them.  Feel free to change, alter, or use as is.  Its all for fun, right?  Do I need to put a disclaimer here? Unfortunately-probably.

- Team Studer (www.studerteam.blogspot.com or Tabitha and Brandon Studer) is not responsible for anyone's actions after following or using our Beer Olympic rules & guidelines.  Each person is responsible for his/her own body and personal decisions.   If you decide to use our Beer Olympics rules & guidelines,  you are agreeing to take full responsibility for any actions, accidents, or injuries that may be caused due to using them.  Don't be stupid- but if you are, it's on you, man.-

4th Annual Studer's Invitational Beer Olympics

[I'm jumping a little out of order with my blog posts, but with the real Summer Olympics so close (and some requests about our event from interested planners), I'm going to dive right into the crazy of our Studer's Invitational Beer Olympics].

This was our fourth year of the Beer Olympics and with each year it continues to get easier, as most of our participants are Beer Olympic veterans and we have quite an accumulation of b.o. (hah) equipment on stock. So planning for this year's event generally starts about a month out thinking about t-shirt design and facebook invitation, etc.  We cap our participant slots at 36 so that we don't have more than 8 teams of 4...anything more than that seems to get a little too out of hand.

Some of the preparations include ordering tshirts, writing up & printing out 'official game rules,' and printing off waivers.  For more information about some helpful planning and CYA tips - visit this post I did last year.

The day usually rolls out the same way - we have everyone sign in and complete the waiver.  They pick up their tshirt and make their donation (donation fee of $30 goes towards cost of beer, tshirt, and a donation to our charity for that year - this year $226 was raised to benefit Miss Tay).  Then it is a short game of sloshball (aka kickball, but with beer) while we figure out the team assignments.  The only team that remains the same from last year is our previous champs (reigning 2 year champs!) Team Potter (face paint = lightening bolt on their forehead).  Everyone else is divided onto teams of 3-4 and given a team name and corresponding face paint.  

The day is made up of 9 events with a planned intermission after event #5.  Each event has 'official rules' in a binder that the refs carry around.  Nobody nitpicks more than someone who's been drinking - so we have our rules ready at hand if we get a whiner.  Our first event is always a beer pong tournament, it seems to be a nice way to ease into the day and it gives teammates an opportunity to slide into alliances with each other.

Event 2 is the Dingbat relay because it picks up the pace of the day and is hilarious.

Event 3 was new this year - the Ice Cube Tray Canoe Races

Event 4 was also a new game this year - Slippy Cup (thank you pinterest for the idea).  Our slip&slide was an old pool cover loaned to us from Brandon's parents and a sprinkler hose borrowed from my parents!

Event 5 is the Anchorman it is always the last event before intermission.  For some reason we never have pictures from it.  Then comes a break time when everyone has a chance to load up on water and fill up their bellies with carbs. 

Event 6 is Flip Cup because its another good game to ease back into the drinking after the break.

Event 7 is one of our favorites - Beer Bong Races (or Quadbongs).  My dad in law crafted up some quad bongs using PVC pipe and some tubing for our first beer olympics and they've made an appearance every year since then.  

Event 8 is our Beer Duel.  I had to run to the beer distributor last minute to pick up a keg pump (oops!  we almost ran out of co2) and as official photographer for the day- we didn't get any pics from this event.

Before the final event we offer a chance for Pound off challenges which is just really a chugging contest between teams.  The faster chugger gets an automatic 5 points for their team score.

Event 9 is our Booze Cruise obstacle course which is always hilarious.  It has the most weight in points and is the last ditch effort to move your team's score before the awards ceremony.

...Speaking of awards ceremony, before we announce the team scores and places - we hand out awards and sashes to participants that dazzled us (the refs and observers) with their efforts, enthusiasm, or antics during the course of the day.  We give awards for things like "Weeble" (weebles wobble but they don't fall down!), "Shark" (someone who doesn't look like a drinker but does awesome), "Clutch" (someone who comes through for their team when they really need it), and "Charlie Sheen" (someone who says the most ridiculous comments throughout the day).  Our two biggest awards are the "Rookie of the Year" and "MVD: Most Valuable Drinker."

Oh, and Booboo wins an award every year - for no other reasons but nepotism and because it makes him proud.  He won the "snake body" award...which means nothing - he's just into snakes right now and anything snake shaped he calls snake bodies.  he's the funniest.  And I'm the best mom ever because I allow my child to wear underpants at our super official awards ceremony.  #parentingfail

At the end of the day, only one team can win though - and after 2 years of the same champs, we finally have a new champion team!  The 2012 Studer's Invitational Beer Olympics Champs were the Buccaneers!

Our beer Olympic champs are the lucky recipients of receiving the first swigs from Das Boot, their names on a plaque for our boot trophy stand, and the satisfaction of knowing they outdrank all other teams...at least until next year:)

I want to publicly thank all our participants for agreeing to wear face & hair paint in the blistering heat this year to raise money for a little girl who needs it.  You guys are awesome for following directions, displaying sportsmanship (even if you're 6 drinks in), and recognizing at the end of the day its about kindness and generosity.  I also want to thank my awesome refs and volunteers this year (that means you - Mum, Lea, Kayla S, Stacy, Becky, and Joe) for helping me keep it all together.  Without you all of you, we would never be able to fulfill these dreams we have - no matter how wacky or crazy they may be.  Honestly, thank you - we love you.

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If you were looking closely at the pictures, you may have noticed some things that looked strange.  Since we were getting into a routine after 3 Beer Olympics- we decided to switch up the games this year by placing a surprise 'handicap' on each event.  Before each event, the teams would decide which teammate would take the 'handicap.'  Then the refs would announce the penalty the teammate would need to endure for that game.  It just made it a little more fun..while funny at least.

Our 'handicaps' included:
beer pong - taping the three middle fingers of the shooting hand together
dingbat relay - taking a shot of beer at the turnaround
ice cube tray canoe races - cocktail straw instead of a drinking straw

slippy cup - wear & keep on toe separators
anchorman - blindfold
flip cup- bind wrists with athletic wrap

bong races - wear a knee high over your head (funniest thing on the planet)

beer duel - one eye blindfold
booze cruise obstacle course - no 'handicap' because at this point in the day - everyone is their own personal handicap - hah.

The penalties went off great and everyone was open to trying something new.  They offered a little spin on the day and we'll probably continue doing them moving forward - only coming up with new and funny things the participants will have to endure.

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If you're interested - here are the links to our 'official' game rules.  They are organized in the order that we play them.  Feel free to change, alter, or use as is.  Its all for fun, right?  Do I need to put a disclaimer here? Unfortunately-probably.

- Team Studer (www.studerteam.blogspot.com or Tabitha and Brandon Studer) is not responsible for anyone's actions after following or using our Beer Olympic rules & guidelines.  Each person is responsible for his/her own body and personal decisions.   If you decide to use our Beer Olympics rules & guidelines,  you are agreeing to take full responsibility for any actions, accidents, or injuries that may be caused due to using them.  Don't be stupid- but if you are, it's on you, man.-